Tag Archives: Indonesia

After exactly one year working in Indonesia I am back in the Netherlands. It has been an interesting, frustrating and learning experience. When I first came there was a lot of energy in the Football Association (PSSI) office. A lot of changes were made over the previous two years to develop football in this football crazy country.
The association brought in two foreigners, Mr. Sivaji and myself, to help develop the sport in Indonesia. Mr. Sivaji is an experienced coach and instructor who is a member of the AFC technical committee.

We concentrated on one of the most important pillars for improvement of football: coach education. In a short period of time we set up a great program for coaches to get their AFC license in Indonesia. There had been a vacuum of 4 years in which the courses were not given or not recognized bij AFC. The new program provided 40 A-, B- and C-AFC courses and 36 National D-courses in 2015. The head coaches participated in the first courses. Many of them had previously followed the national courses which were not recognized bij AFC. Continue reading →

Indonesian coach’s patience starting to wear thin

By John Duerden
The head coach of Indonesia is discovering that when your country is banned from international football, there really isn’t very much to do… This forced inaction could result in Pieter Huistra leaving a job he loves, or loved. The Dutchman accepted the role as the technical director of the Indonesian national team in December 2014 and then took over the coaching duties in May. Soon after, FIFA issued its suspension to the football-loving Southeast Asian nation due to government interference.
Almost five months on and there isn’t any sign of the situation changing soon. The senior national team had to withdraw from qualification for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup, while the country’s clubs were booted out of the AFC Cup.